Search - The Melody of Oblivion, Vol. 1-6: Complete DVD Box Set on DVD

Magnificent!!!

Niko | 06/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well, being the first to review the entire series I will try to provide you with as much details as possible without giving too much away.

Melody of Oblivion is an anime that belongs to the category of fantasy/action/romance series. So what is it all about: In the 20 th century a great war occurred in which humans fought against monsters. To make the long story short humans lost the war big time. Since then, time past and humans forgot what really happened and continue to live in a world that is the one that we are today (21 st century). The monsters, who can take human form, rule the world and humans have to deliver after a specific time period children as sacrifices to them - basically monsters eat humans. What is more, the monsters have names that are found in ancient Greek mythology. Additionally, if a human sees a monster in its true form than he or she turns into a stone, a wood puppet etc. Humans that are something like the monster's minions rule the world and are known as Monster Union. These agents will do anything so as to get on the good side of their masters even sacrificing their own brothers and sisters willingly. Imagine them like a fanatic group of people. Well, this is the boring side of the coin and therefore, let us turn now towards the interesting side of things.

Among humans arises a group of people who can kill the monsters, known as Meros Warriors. These people have something like supernatural powers and in order to fight the monsters they use bows and arrows with various techniques; in addition even if they look at a monster's true form they are not affected by it. On top of that they are riding super powerful bikes (Ivermachines) that are able to turn into human form with super powers, can fly, have their own will etc.
Finally, the warriors are able to hear the so called Melody of Oblivion which is resembled by a young girl (I will not get so much into detail about this or basically I will give the plot away).
This is by and large the setting.

The story starts with the young main protagonist Bocca who turns into a Meros Warrior and the young female protagonist Sayoko who was given as a sacrifice by her parents but was saved by another warrior called Kurofune. Bocca starts his journey with the hope to understand what he has to do and what makes someone a Meros Warrior, to do so he leaves everything behind, his family, his girlfriend and his friends. Sayoko believes that she is in love with Kurofune, therefore, is traveling together with Bocca so as to see him again. But afterwards she realizes that she is truly in love with Bocca - and he does realize that he is in love with her - and a love story evolves in the midst of battle. During their journey they meet other Meros Warriors like Toune or Coco who will fight alongside them plus the professor Saburou (the creator of the Ivermachines). All these battles and romances that will evolve will lead to a climax of battles in space and parallel dimensions.

I will stop here as far as the storyline concerns otherwise I will start giving spoilers away.

So, to the next obvious question: What makes this series so special? To begin with, it is its character development but also how the relationship between Bocca and Sayoko is portrayed, from starting as just being travelers to a romantic relationship in which they would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives in order to protect the other one. Than it is its strong and solid plot with many twists in it. Moreover, it is action packed and the creators knew how to keep the balance of the story and character development and the hard core action. Furthermore, it is its soundtrack; the music that accompanies the series varies from instrumental, to opera and to pop rock; but these people knew how to do it!

Now to the other details:
The animation is good, to get a better picture it is something in-between of Lodoss and Cowboy Bebop.

The voice acting is very professional done so are the subs (but I saw the Japanese version therefore, I have no opinion about the dubs).

The music is just great. The opening is a pop/rock version but one of the best I have heard so far in an anime. The ending is a ballad song (usually it is something typical for animes to end with a ballad).

To conclude, this series is not your typical fantasy anime, it has a solid plot with twists, great character development, is action packed and it will make you care about its characters. Therefore, if you can afford the money I do highly recommend this anime to anyone!!!
"